pencil whipped

A mouse about the house!

2011-12-29T15:00:00.002+08:00

more traditional pencils and inks and digital colors

traditional inks... digital colors

2011-12-22T17:30:00.001+08:00

A bit of fun for the day. I think I'm stuck in Halloween mode and it's December already.

Character concept sketch 'The Mute' - a tracker from the wastelands

2011-12-15T18:17:00.002+08:00

The Long Summer - Work In Progress

2011-12-06T22:57:00.003+08:00

More from some of the current project I'm working on...

N'Yaj

2011-11-29T02:45:00.005+08:00

This was one was another weekly sketch group piece. The character concept N'Yaj is by Greg Anderson

Mountain Search and Rescue quick sketch

2011-11-22T15:44:00.004+08:00

Part of the a Weekly Sketch Group project over at Penciljack. Sketch groups are great to keep you motivated to sketch things you normally wouldn't it breaks you out of your comfort zone. The natives over there keep me on my toes!

The Sarge

2011-11-19T19:06:00.003+08:00

A quick pencil sketch inspired by Joe Kubert's Sgt. Rock comics!

stopmotion test

2011-11-19T18:53:00.002+08:00

I'm a lifelong fan of stopmotion animation... so here's one of my attempts at it! :)

Hong Kong Street Sketch

2011-11-19T13:33:00.003+08:00

Another quick sketch. This one I scribbled on the back of a Chinese menu while grabbing a bite to eat in Mongkok. A quick rough translation would read:

Hawker with shoulder board - "watch out!! comin' through!"

Old grandma - "so much trouble you!"

both are things you'll hear thousands of times on any given day in Cantonese.

Morning quick sketch

2011-11-18T13:13:00.004+08:00

Up early today and was getting in a cuppa... brilliant that the IFC building has a cafe with massive floor to ceiling windows that look out over Victoria Harbor. Hong Kong isn't exactly known for it's cafe culture - which means most places are not worth sitting for more than a few minutes while you chug down the liquid courage that is coffee. However this particular cafe has the absolutely massive and muddy construction site in full view of its windows... so great spot to sketch. Just as busy an ant hill... tons of cranes moving heavy objects too and fro... mud everywhere... people shouting... what's not to love. I think it's hard wired for humans to stop and just watch busy construction sites!

2011-11-16T14:54:00.002+08:00

Whatever's kicking around the drawing table at the moment.

Hong Kong Street Sketch

2011-11-15T12:01:00.001+08:00

A random collection of daily street sketches in between whatever else I was doing.

Claymation short

2011-11-14T23:14:00.002+08:00

I've always been fascinated by claymation... so I thought I'd give it a try and made the simple short! :)

Hey I stepped on something!!!

2011-11-13T15:34:00.002+08:00

A quick piece from a short story I'm working on at the moment.

Hong Kong sampan sketches

2011-11-02T15:24:00.005+08:00

Ok here's more penciled goodness in no particular order other than it's recent. I've always found the sampan's (water taxis) very interesting! Not nearly as many of them as there have been in decades past... the people that run them are a different breed as well. Unlike regular taxi's in Hong Kong the sampans are mostly driven by women. I suspect they all live on their boats all year round. Sometimes there are three or four boats roped together. One to live in and the other two for storage. Here's my sketches of them.

Back behind the pencil!!!

2011-10-31T13:50:00.003+08:00

Ok after a long break from the creative side of life... I'm back behind the pencil! That means more consistent posting on this blog from now on!

The first piece to kick off the new posting habit is part of a film concept that I've been working on... just roughing out the ideas!

Another Short and Rough Animation

2007-12-17T17:04:00.000+08:00

Here's another quick one... this time I've taken it further and added a simple background and some color. These will be continually refined until they're longer and complete an actual gag or story.

These are 2D animations drawn frame by frame in the 'straight ahead' style... so they're probably the most basic form of animation. I think it's really the place where everyone starts animating from... animating in the traditional style I think offers a more natural movement than does animation in Flash... err... at least once you attain a level of proficiency.

Very Short and Rough Animations

2007-12-17T17:01:00.000+08:00

I've been busy learning how to animate... which is a paradigm shift from illustration and conceptual work or comic book pencils. It's like comic book pencils on steroids. Great. Just what I needed. Nothing like working for eight hours to realize that you've produced 5 seconds of rough animation. GAH!!!

These are just rough pencil tests to get my head around adding motion and life to the drawings. Let me know what you think!

Tibetan monk - study in gouache

2007-11-27T21:01:00.000+08:00

Here's a quick paint I did in gouache on canvas paper. Painting in gouache is one of the more unforgiving mediums to work in. Blink... and it's dry. It forces you to hit the ground running and be decisive when making strokes... not that I'm at that point just yet.

Paint test

2007-11-26T15:29:00.000+08:00

A quicky paint test on a character for a current project.

Boy holds fish

2007-11-26T15:18:00.000+08:00

Something random. Busy penciling on other projects so not much time to fill the sketchbook at the moment.

Ritualized Violence

2007-11-19T18:56:00.000+08:00

Here's a short clip of me what doing what I do when I'm not sketching.

That and $3.50 gets you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

Nice dog... lame owner

2007-11-10T12:18:00.000+08:00

This was a great big dog that slobbered his way up to me recently. One of those dogs that makes you feel good about the day. I think the breed is called a Newfoundland. The dog was just a big 'ol pleasant dog... the owner however was snotty, self important piece of work. Classic study in contrasts. I'd have sketched the sour faced owner too... but when she saw me sketching her dog she threw a dirty look my way and stormed off with her dog. How did a nice dog like that get an idiot for an owner?

Cute as a babe

2007-11-10T12:07:00.000+08:00

Some things are just too cute to pass up. This little fella crawled right up to me while I was sketching. He seemed to know I was doing gesture quick sketches... he'd hold his pose for about 10-15 seconds and then strike a new one. It cracked me up. My pen was running out of ink so the line is a bit scratchy... but the roundness of this cute babe still comes through.

Head Study

2007-11-10T11:50:00.000+08:00

Quick random head study. Part from memory and part from some person I saw in the cafe. What is it about leaving the eyes white that I like? I seem to do it on lots of my characters in my sketchbooks. Maybe it reminds me of Silver Surfer?

Scavenger Tribe

2007-11-10T11:32:00.000+08:00

A quick little sketch inspired by the Hong Kong recycling shops. I walk past these shops where they have mainland Chinese tearing apart whatever comes their way. From air conditioners, to outdated machinery... at some point I'm sure to walk by and they'll be scrapping a jet turbine. It's amazing what can be torn apart with a box cutter, screw driver and hammer. Damn near anything. There are less and less of these scrapper shops every year makes me wonder if at some point they simply won't exist in Hong Kong any longer.

Recurring sketch book baldness

2007-11-03T05:44:00.000+08:00

I always wonder if other artists end up with large amounts of bald people in their sketch book? It seems that the bald people pop up on just about every page. Do I have a hair rendering phobia?

The Red Visitor

2007-11-03T04:20:00.001+08:00

Good coffee makes monks of us all

2007-11-03T03:51:00.000+08:00

Just a quick sketch of a man that looked like a monk who came in while I was having a cup of coffee... he really lived up to that stereotype of what we think of monks... he sort of exuded a peacefulness and a sense of calm. Obviously, we all look that good after we get our first cup of coffee of the day in.

Coffee sketches

2007-11-02T13:26:00.000+08:00

Gestures and quick sketches done over coffee... good quick gesture over painstaking accuracy. Always good to loosen back up with the pencil with quick sketches. It means I could probably run a tour guide of Hong Kong coffee shops.

More intro panel work

2007-11-02T13:15:00.000+08:00

A quick bit of panel work... the intro to a battle with underworld crime boss Fat Cat.

The morning paper

2007-11-02T01:23:00.000+08:00

Just a panel working out a quick intro for a modern take on gumshoe type detective story.

Walkin' and talkin'...

2007-11-01T23:42:00.000+08:00

Just working out simple story beats. A short and simple conflict based on a discussion me and mate had. So I sat down and gave it thirty minutes under the pencil.

Monster on city rampage!

2007-11-01T23:19:00.001+08:00

I happened to catch the end of some Japanese movie with monsters rampaging through the city... so I decided it was high time that I too worked out a scene with a monster on the rampage in the urban sprawl. Not quite Godzilla... but getting there.

Another quick panel

2007-11-01T21:35:00.000+08:00

A quick intro for a boxing short that I'm working on. Again just thinking out loud with the pencil.

A quick bit of panel work

2007-11-01T18:31:00.001+08:00

Just a quick bit that I was working on for a short bit I'm writing. I tend to think visually so my writing usually benefits from sitting down with the pencil and sketchbook... and of course... the rocket fuel that is espresso.

Working out heroic proportions

2007-10-31T16:12:00.000+08:00

A dark and rainy Tuesday here in Hong Kong was a good excuse for an espresso and some work on heroic proportions. About an hours worth of pencil time.

A green Velocirat and his rider

2007-10-24T04:06:00.000+08:00

A quick sketch done over a cup of coffee. Trying to get in the habit of working with creatures. I've spent countless hours sketching the human form... but need to spend some time sketching the not so human form.